Railroad-ballast cleaner



' July 6, 1926.

F. SPENO RAILROAD BALLAST CLEANER Filed Jan. 4, 1925 s Sheets-Sheet 1 July 6 1926.

F. SPENO RAILROAD BALLAST CLEANER 1923 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Jan. 4

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F. SPENO RAILROAD BALLAST CLEANER July 6 1926. 1,591,790

F'i1-ed Jan. 4. 1923 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 Patented .July e, 1926.

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Application filed January 4, 1923 Serial No. 610,593.

My invention relates to a railroad ballast cleaner. I l a This invention eliminates the ordinary screening of ballast by hand labor, it saves a great deal of ballast, which has hitherto been thrown away'with the dirt, and saves raising of track more than is necessary in order to bury the dirt and cinders to make the track look clean, in this way savingmafor a period of one month. This machine -.terial, as the raising of the track necessitates the use of more stone to fill the tracks to thegrade where they belong.

My invention scoops the ballast and dirt from the sides of the track at the ends, of the'cross-ties; separates all the dirt from the -ballast, and casts the former outside of the track any distance that may be required, the stone going back into the trackas clean as it'originally comes from the quarry.

Ordinarily the cleaning of the ballast on a mile track requires thirty men per day will clean at least two miles of the ballast per day with the necessary labor for handling the machine which does not exceed five or six menat the mostfi In addition to the above, it saves a great deal of ballast hitherto wasted, which is a large iteni in maintenance of a roadbed, and in actual. cost to the railroads is greater than the cost of labor. j

In the accompanying drawings:

Fig. 1 is a plan view;

. Fig. 2 is a side elevation;

Fig. 3 is a front view looking rearward showing the scoops in operative position;

Fig. 4 is a rear view showing the scoops folded;

Fig. 5 is a section on the line 55 of Fig. 1; i

Fig. 6 shows an alternative form of elevator. Y

The numeral 1 represents a' railwa car, preferably of special design and 2, t e excavating scoops. These are supported on arms 3, which are pivoted to the beam of the car by means of the ins 4. These arms when in working position are held in grooves 3' as shown 1n Figs. 1 and 2. The scoops 2 might have conveyors 2 actuated by the material or by power.

. The scoops are located onopposite'sides of the car where they are held-down to their work by bars 5. At the rear of each'scoop, a

pit 6 is formed to receive the dirt and ballast as 1t 1s caught in the scoops 2 at the sides of. the track with the slow forward movement of the car. The ballast travels up the mobile of scoops by means of corrugated endless belts. Two spiral worms 7 extend. from the bottom of the pit 6 upwardly, or converge toward the center, their function being tolift the material as it is scooped from the sides of the track and discharge it upon the incline'8 at the center of the car from where it drops into the pit 8, from where it is picked up by the buckets 9 of an inclined endless conveyor 10, which latter travels over rollers 11 through a casing 12, and discharg'es'at the upper end' into rotary screen 13 mounted upon a shaft 14, and which rotary screen'is inclined, as shown in Figs. 2 and 4, to a point where it reaches discharge spout 15, which distributes the cleaned ballast at the ,rear of the car in the center of 'the track, and through which rotary screen 13' fine dirt and cinders drop into hopper 16 and are discharged at an time" and place required,'down 'over the sides of the track by pipes 17' as shown in Figs. 1

and 2. Thespout 15 might swing in the arc of a circle, or more than one might be employed .to distribute the ballast.

The spiral worms 7 have gears 18 at the top. These mesh with worm gears 19 on the shafts 20, and each shaft 20 has beveled gears 21, 22, at its 0 posite ends. Each bevelv gear 21 at the orward end meshes with a bevel gear 23 on the shaft 24, which latter is driven by a worm 25 on ashaft 26 from the gasoline motor 27, all of which transmission mechanism included by the nu:

merals 18 to 26 inclusive is controlled by orator through a clutch-lever 28.

the o v In 'eu of the worms 7 endless conveyors 7 could be used, as shown in Fig. 6.

The bevel gear 22 meshes with a bevel gear 29 on the transverse shaftBO. The

bevel gear 29 drives the bevel-gear 32 on a vertical shaft 33, which has bevel gears on its u per end for driving shafts 33 and 36.

Sha t 33' has a bevel gear 3% which meshes with a bevel-gear 35 on the shaft 14, which turns the screen 13.

A horizontal shaft 36 has a pulley 37 thereon, from which a belt 38 extends to a pulley 39 onthe shaft 40, which drives the endless conveyor 10.

Thus all the moving parts are driven from the motor 27 simultaneously through the transmission mechanism, including not only the parts numbered from 19 to 26, but also from 29 to 40.

It is the custom of railroads to clean the ballast periodically, usually every two years, and while so doing to replace worn out and rotted ties. lVith the use of my machine, the ballast, dirt and cinders between the ties are shoveled out to the sides of the track,

the car carrying the machine is pulled by the locomotive slowly upon the track, and this material is caught by the two scoops 2 and carried into the pits 6, thence is lifted to the incline 8, from which it falls into the pit 8', from where it is conveyed upwardly by the buckets 9, and discharged into the rotary screen 13, which separates the cleaned ballast from the dirt, discharging the ballast over the spout 15 to the middle of the track in a condition substantially as clean as ballast newly delivered from the quarry. The dirt and cinders drop through holes in the screen into the hopper 16 below, from which it is carried off to the sides to any convenient point through the pipe 17.

Thus in a convenient and economical way the ballast is quickly and effectually cleaned and re-deposited on the track in a minimum length of time, and with only enough laborers to clean the dirt and ballast from between the ties and to operate the machine.

When not in use, provision is made for folding the scoops up at the sides, as shown in Fig. 4. Cables 42 are provided for this purpose. These pass over pulleys 43 supported on the central beam 44, and thence to the Windlass 45 operated by an air-hoist (or any convenient means for the purpose) 46, the air for the purpose being supplied from the air-tank 47. Air-cylinders 48-have pistons and piston-rods 49 therein which extend to the spiral worms for raising the latter preparatory to the scoopsbeing raised when folded in the vertical position shown in Fig. 4. These air cylinders are supplied with air from the air tank 47. Preliminary to raising the scoops, bars 5 are slid or swung out of the way of the arms 3 of the scoop. Guide-ways 50 limit and guide the movement of the spiral worms when raised or lowered by the air-hoist 48.

It is understood that the car is pulled forward by the locomotive, forcing the scoops into the ballast by the operation of the locomotive, the ballast in that way being forced back to the elevating means, from which place the elevators raise it, carrying it to the conveyor, and the conveyor to t e screen, the elevating means, conveyor and screen being operated independently by motive power carried by the car.

I claim:

1. A ballast cleaning machine including tions, and means for moving the conveyors out of the path of the scoops prior to the movement thereof into inoperative positions.

2. A ballast cleaning machine including scoops at the sides thereof, conveyors associated with the scoops and extending thereinto for conveying the material therefrom, means for moving said conveyors out of the scoo s, and means for moving the scoops upwar 1 into inoperative positions.

3. ballast cleaning machine including scoops at the sides thereof, slidably mounted spiral worms associated with the scoops and extendin thereinto, and means for moving the spira worms out of the scoops.

4. A ballast cleaning machine including scoops at the sides thereof, slidably mounted spiral worms associated with the scoops and extending thereinto, and means for sliding the spiral worms out of the scoops to permit the movement thereof into inoperative positions.

5. A ballast cleaning machine including scoops at the sides thereof, slidably mounted spiral worms associated with the scoops and extending thereinto, means for sliding the spiral worms out of the scoops, and means for moving the scoops upwardly into inoperative positions.

6. A ballast cleaning machine including scoops at the sides thereof, slidably mounted spiral worms associated with the scoops and extending upwardly therefrom, a centrally located incline upon which said spiral worms discharge, a conveyor extending upwardly from said incline, 'ascreen associated with said conveyor and means for moving the scoops out of normal position.

7. A ballast cleaning machine including a frame, scoops at the sides thereof, arms pivoted to the frame and supporting the scoops, means for raising and lowering the arms and scoops, said frame having grooves formed therein for receiving the arms, and means for holding the arms in their lowered position.

8. A ballast cleaning machine including a frame, scoops at the sides thereof, arms pivoted to the frame and supporting the scoops, means for raising and lowering the arms and scoops, said frame having grooves formed therein for receiving the arms and having notches formed in the sides thereof, and bars in said notches above the arms for holding said arms in their lowered positions.

9. A ballast cleaning machine including scoops pivotally mounted thereon, means for raising and lowering the scoops, slidably mounted rotatable spiral worms for lifting memeo mounted rotatable spiral worms for lifting the material tothe center of the machine as it is gathered by the scoops, and pneumatic elevators connected with the worms for raising said worms out of the way when the scoops areielevated.

11. A ballast cleaning machine constructed and arranged to travel on a track, and having pivotally mounted excavating scoops at both sides, pits at the rear of the scoops, into which the material from the scoops passes, rotary spiral worms extending upwardly from the pits and converging toward the center of the machine, an incline upon which these spiral Worms discharge, the spiral worms slidably mounted, and independent means for raising and lowering the scoops and the spiral worms when the scoops are folded upwardly.

12. The combination with a car, scoops at each side thereof ivotally mounted, a windlass, pulleys, ca les extending from the scoops around the pulleys to the Windlass,-

means for operatin the Windlass to raise or lower the scoops, slidably mounted rotatable spiral worms for lifting the material to the center ofthe machine as it is gathered by the excavating scoops, and means for raising said worms out of the way when the scoops are folded upwardly.

13. A ballast cleaning machine having scoops at the sides thereof for scooping up ballast at the sides of the track, spiral worms extending upwardly from the scoops for carrying the ballast to the center of the machine, a screen, an endless conveyor for carrying the ballast to the screen, a hopper located below the screen for collecting the dirt from the ballast, discharging means connected with the screen and hopper, means for driving the spiral worms, the endless conveyor and screen, and means for raising the scoops and spiral worms out of their normal positions.

14. A ballast cleaning machine including scoops, conveyors associated with the scoops for conveying the material therefrom, means for moving the scoops into inoperative positions, and means for moving theconveyors relative to the scoops prior to the movement thereof into inoperative positions.

' 15. A ballast cleaning machine lncludin scoops at the sides thereof, conveyors exten ing into the scoops for conveying the material therefrom and onto the machine, means for moving the scoops out of their scooping positions, and means for moving the convoyors out of their operative positions in the scoops prior to the movement of the scoops into inoperative positions.

16. A ballast cleaning machine including scoops at the sides thereof, conveyors extending into the scoops for conveying the material therefrom, means for moving the scoops out of their scooping positions, and pneumatic means connected with the conveyors for moving said-conveyors out of their operative positions in the scoops prior to the movement of' the scoops, into inoperative positions. i

17. A ballast cleaning machine including scoops, slidably mounted conveyors associated with the scoops, and means for sliding v FRANK SPENO. 

